e of every
thing that would mark the geographical position of the place
represented. The shape of its noble old trees we have been permitted to
retain; but their foliage we have been obliged to render so
indistinctly, that even Linnaeus himself would find it impossible to
decide whether it belonged to the elm of the North when clothed in all
its summer luxuriance, or to the gigantic live-oak of the South. Even of
the house itself we have been permitted to give but a rear view, lest
the more marked features of the landscape in front should hint of its
whereabouts. As to the figures which appear in the foreground of the
picture, they are but figments of my young artist friend's imagination.
One of them you may observe carries under the arm a sheaf of wheat, not
a stalk of which I assure you ever grew on the Donaldson lands.

Even from this imperfect picture of the exterior, you will perceive that
the house is, as I have said, both large and picturesque. Within, the
rooms go rambling about in such a strange fashion, that an unaccustomed
guest attempting to make his way without a guide to the _chambre de
nuit_ in which he had slept only the night before, would be very apt to
find himself in the condition of a certain bird celebrated in nursery
rhymes as wandering,

Up stairs and down stairs
And in the ladies' chambers.

In this house have the Donaldsons lived and died for nearly two hundred
years, and during all that time they have never failed to observe the
Christmas with right genuine, old English hospitality. Then, their sons
and their daughters, their men-servants and their maid-servants, and the
stranger within their gates, felt the genial influence of their
gratitude to Him who added year after year almost unbroken temporal
prosperity to the priceless gift commemorated by that festival. At many
of these _reunions_ it has been my good fortune to be present. Indeed,
though only "AUNT Nancy," by that courtesy which so often accords to the
single sisterhood some endearing title, as a consolation, I presume, for
the more honorable one of MRS. which their good or evil fortune has
denied them, I have been ever received at Donaldson Manor as at my own
familiar home; nor was it matter of surprise to myself or to our mutual
friends, when the Col. and Mrs. Donaldson named their fourth daughter
after me, modifying the old-fashioned Nancy, however, into its more
agreeable synonyme of Annie.

This daughter has been, o